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Table 2 Cycads in the Mexican archeological record, 4700 BC–1780 AD

From: Ethnobotany of Mexican and northern Central American cycads (Zamiaceae)

Region

Site

• Phase (dates)

Cycad remains recovered and relationships to other useful plants

SIERRA DE TAMAULIPAS [12]

Total food recovered (L)

Dom. plants (L)

Dioon (L)

Maize (L)

Wild plant food (% of diet)

Animal food (% of diet)

Dom. plants (% of diet)

 Cueva de la Perra a

  • La Perra (3000–2200 BC)b

19.77

1.84

8.1 (41%)

0.85

76

15

9

  • Laguna (600 BC–0 AD)b

23.72

9.28

3.09 (13%)

5.91

51

9

40

 Cueva del Armadillo

  • Los Angeles (1200–1780 AD)b

15.57

6.17

3.44 (22%)

5.42

42

18

40

SIERRA MADRE DE TAMAULIPAS

  Ojo de Agua cavec

  • Palmillas (260–960 AD)

Dioon angustifolium: 89 “leaf bases,” 20 “bracts,” 9 seeds

  Romero’s Caved

  • Occupation # 14 (1100–1500 AD)

Dioon angustifolium: 2 sclerotesta fragments, with Lagenaria and Cucurbita remains (unexamined remains may include other Dioon fragments)

VALLE DE TEHUACÁN [19]

“The broken seed coats [sclerotestas] of this plant are not abundant, but showed that the plant [Dioon sp.] had been fairly persistently used [in the Tehuacán Valley] over some thousands of years”; “The oblong seed...provides a starch food when cooked, but it could never have been important in the diet of the Coxcatlán Cave people”e

 Coxcatlán Cave

Seeds recovered

Seeds presentf

Food (L)g

  • Coxcatlán XII (4700–4300 BC)

1

12

0.1

  • Coxcatlán XI (4217–4025 BC)

7

56

0.3

  • Abejas X (3300–3100 BC)

1

30

0.1

  • Abejas IX (no dates specified)

1

5

 

  • Santa Maria VII (450–100 BC)

13

26

0.1

  • Palo Blanco VI (150 BC-280 AD)

4

4

 

  • Venta Salada III (790–1010 AD)

2

2

 

  • Venta Salada II (1000–1178 AD)

2

2

 

 El Riego Cave h

  • Palo Blanco (700–900 AD)

1 sclerotesta fragment

PUUC MAYA REGION, YUCATÁN

  Escalera al Cieloi

  • Terminal Classic (800–950 AD)

3 Zamia sp. starch grains on 3 hand-held stone grinding implements

  1. aThe dominant plant remains of the [La Perra] horizon are Dioon edule [D. angustifolium]. There were 14 bases, 31 bracts, and 1621 seeds of this plant. Since 200 of these acornlike seeds fill a liter, 8.10 liters occur ([12], pç 144)
  2. b“[T]entative absolute dates” ([12], p. 198, Table 31)
  3. cZone C, Occupation 10 ([101], cited in [59]). (Dioon remains also found in Valenzuela’s and Romero’s caves ([102, 103], according to [59]; see also below))
  4. dData provided by Illinois State Museum (emails from Dee Ann Watt to Mark Bonta, 11/17/2009 to 11/30/2009, including photographic plate of Dioon remains); catalog # 817/541ai
  5. e([19], p .235)
  6. fAdjusted for “preservation factor”
  7. gEstimate of food available based on preservation factor
  8. hFour kilometers W of Coxcatlán Cave. From “east niche...zone d”
  9. iFrom Table 7.1, “Starch grains and phytoliths recovered from handheld grinding implements (sediments 2 and 3)” ([61], p. 262)
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Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine

ISSN: 1746-4269

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